Last year I have been to Stockholm with my girlfriend, we arrived in our hotel in the evening and decided to drink something at the hotel bar. I can't remember exactly how much we drunk (it was moderate) but I remember very well that my girlfriend had to pay the bill with her credit card because she didn't have enough cash in her wallet (I left my wallet in our room so I drunk for free ).

Since that day I am asking myself why alcohol is so friggin expensive in all Scandinavian countries? Did these countries have problems with excessive alcohol consume in the past so that they introduced astronomic taxes on beer, wine, and booze?

Can anyone enlighten me?

Furthermore, which of the Scandinavian countries is the most expensive when it comes to alcohol?

How much money do you have to spend on drinks on a "normal" Saturday night?

Patrick

NZ1's mother is a disgusting crack-whore and his father is a worthless alcoholic!

Why? Because the gvmt want to reduce the damage that alcohol makes on peoples health.

Alcohol in Sweden can only be found at SYSTEMBOLAGET:

"This is Systembolaget
Systembolaget is a modern, efficient retail enterprise consisting of 420 stores and about 590 local agencies, serving about 2 million customers every week. We supply customers in Sweden with alcoholic drinks such as beer, wine and spirits. Our business is a state owned monopoly, and from the very outset its retailing activities have been separated from any private profit.
The wide product range, the employees knowledge, and freedom of choice that we offer are difficult to find in countries where sales are organized differently."

Quoting Logan22L (Reply 8):Simple rule of supply and demand. When you got things like this going on, there's not much left for the rest of you:

It's not that simple. Sweden has the highes tax on alcohol in Europe (save for maybe Norway, but I'm not sure about that). 40% of the price of a bottle of wine are taxes. That's why it's expensive.

The government wants to lower that, and pay for it by raising taxes on tobacco, which is fine with me, but guess who got in the way? Yes, as always, the Green Party, which has lost so many supporters over the years, that if we had an election today, they wouldn't be let into the parliament!

Cheers
Mats

Sure, we're concerned for our lives. Just not as concerned as saving 9 bucks on a roundtrip to Ft. Myers.

Quoting Doona (Reply 10):It's not that simple. Sweden has the highes tax on alcohol in Europe (save for maybe Norway, but I'm not sure about that). 40% of the price of a bottle of wine are taxes. That's why it's expensive.

Doona - you don't know me, but unless I'm talking about religion or politics, I'm usually just busting balls. That's OYRJA deep-throating a Carlsberg with many more to follow (seriously - that's him).

"The deeper you go, the higher you fly. The higher you fly, the deeper you go."

Try Russia sometime. Took a cruise from St. Petersburg to Moscow..vodka one dollar, wine two dollars, beer three dollars. Stayed at Armand Hammer's big hotel on our last night. A coke and two vodka-bitter lemons cost
35 dollars. TPAnx

Not stereotyping anyone but the Swedes in my college drank quite a lot of alcohol. They put the Germans to shame! There was one Swedish woman who could drink anyone under the table even though she was skinny as hell. I KNOW she weighs only 45 or 47 kilograms! I wished I could have put together a drinking contest: the Germans vs the Swedes. Leave us damn Yanks out. We'd never get past the first case!

Quoting Swisskloten (Reply 15):Not stereotyping anyone but the Swedes in my college drank quite a lot of alcohol.

Well, we get plenty of training, most people start drinking around the age of 14 nowadays. If you don't have a story from your early teens that involves at least 6 different kinds of booze, projectile vomiting, and being ashamedly picked up by your parents, you're not a real Swede!

Cheers
Mats

Sure, we're concerned for our lives. Just not as concerned as saving 9 bucks on a roundtrip to Ft. Myers.

Denmark is not that bad, actually, as all Danes drive to Flensburg to buy Danish Ceres Royal (elendig lort ). As far as I know, 10% of all Danish beers or so are bought Flensburg, a quite large number.

Anyway, you often get a box of Tuborg Grøn (10 litres, 30 bottles à 0,33l) for 85 DKK, which is around 11€, so that is not that bad (normal price is higher, but usually you get these discounts).

Going downtown, however, is another story. In Aarhus you pay 45kr for a beer most places, but this is also due to high wages. I personally almost never went to places like that when I lived in Denmark, we always went to private Erasmus partys or a place called Social Club where you got beer for free for one hour.

In general, everything is expensive in Denmark, however. This is due to high taxes and high wages. Another reason for alcohol being expensive is, though, that people are really drinking too much. This is a problem all over the world, of course, but in Scandinavia people drink way too much I think (a generalisation, but it is true nevertheless)

EVERYTHING is expensive in Scandinavia- London pales in comparison! Why? Because our taxes are sky high. VAT in Denmark is 25% and they take up to 50% of your wage for taxes. It's just utterly insane. I don't know about Norway, but it IS more expensive...

Denmark isn't that expensive anymore actually. LAst year they cut the alcohol tax with 40%. So if you buy alcohol in a supermarket its very cheap. But if you buy it out on a bar or something like that you will probably have to pay around 5 euros.
And some places like Jomfru Anegade i Aalborg you only pay around 1½ Euro for a pint. Ant they have those prices on almost every bar that is located on Jomfru Ane gade.

I'm a little worried about the price of alcohol in Scandinavia. I've never been, but on Thursday I fly to Sweden for two gigs, then we go down to Denmark for a concert in Copenhagen, and finish with 2 dates in Norway. I have a feeling I'll end up drinking my wages for the week. Sound engineers with drink problems and expensive countries don't mix (no pun intended!)

Paul

Edith in his bed, a plane in the rain is humming, the wires in the walls are humming some song - some mysterious song

The Nordics is simply the home turf of the ancient Vikings (minus the Baltic Sea coastline of Poland and Germany). During the Viking Age the waters of the Baltic Sea and the North Atlantic was what combined people. Transport over land was much more cumbersome. Forests and mountains separated people, water combined.

After this they sailed to Finland and plundered there, and went
up the country. All the people fled to the forest, and they had
emptied their houses of all household goods. The king went far
up the country, and through some woods, and came to some
dwellings in a valley called Herdaler, -- where, however, they
made but small booty, and saw no people; and as it was getting
late in the day, the king turned back to his ships. Now when
they came into the woods again people rushed upon them from all
quarters, and made a severe attack. The king told his men to
cover themselves with their shields, but before they got out of
the woods he lost many people, and many were wounded; but at
last, late in the evening, he got to the ships. The Finlanders
conjured up in the night, by their witchcraft, a dreadful storm
and bad weather on the sea; but the king ordered the anchors to
be weighed and sail hoisted, and beat off all night to the
outside of the land. The king's luck prevailed more than the
Finlanders' witchcraft; for he had the luck to beat round the
Balagard's side in the night. and so got out to sea. But the
Finnish army proceeded on land, making the same progress as the
king made with his ships. So says Sigvat: --

"The third fight was at Herdaler, where
The men of Finland met in war
The hero of the royal race,
With ringing sword-blades face to face.
Off Balagard's shore the waves
Ran hollow; but the sea-king saves
His hard-pressed ship, and gains the lee
Of the east coast through the wild sea."

Taxes in Sweden are ridiculous. Not only that, but all alcohol in the country is sold through a government agency, Systembolaget, which sets ridiculous prices. Systembolaget is actually pretty interesting though, you can get basically any brand and kind of alcohol in their retail stores, even the really obscure stuff. The Swedes say that the high prices keep alcohol related-deaths and illnesses low. Whatever, I saw my fair share of drunk Swedes. It was really annoying going out for a night in Stockholm and dropping $50 on alcohol.

Finland wasn't as bad as Sweden, and I believe that they also sell alcohol strictly through the government. Alko, I think was the name of the stores. But, a lot of Finns in Helsinki will take the ferry to Estonia and load up. In fact, one of my guidebooks said just taking the ferry to Tallinn was worth it just to watch Finns cram as much alcohol in their cars as possible.

everything is expensive in Sweden but alcohol is stupidly expensive. I paid 118SEK yesterday for two pints of beer (o.k. it was an import - London Pride), but gimme a break.
One week left here

Quoting Bofredrik (Reply 7):Systembolaget is a modern, efficient retail enterprise consisting of 420 stores and about 590 local agencies, serving about 2 million customers every week. We supply customers in Sweden with alcoholic drinks such as beer, wine and spirits. Our business is a state owned monopoly, and from the very outset its retailing activities have been separated from any private profit.

Efficient!! Hah ... take a number and wait. You can't touch the bottles on your own but need to fill in an order ticket. They treat you like a kid!
-Milan320

Quoting Milan320 (Reply 42):I paid 118SEK yesterday for two pints of beer (o.k. it was an import - London Pride), but gimme a break.

That's 59 SEK per pint, which is pretty expensive, but not unusual. Higher-end bars will charge those prices for better beers, but at most pubs a pint of unleaded regular will cost you 45-50 SEK.

Quoting Milan320 (Reply 42):Efficient!! Hah ... take a number and wait. You can't touch the bottles on your own but need to fill in an order ticket. They treat you like a kid!

What kind of backwater Systembolaget store have you been to lately? There aren't many of those left in Sweden now, and the only reason it's like that was that the store lacked the space to display all items.

Cheers
Mats

Sure, we're concerned for our lives. Just not as concerned as saving 9 bucks on a roundtrip to Ft. Myers.

Quoting Sabena332 (Thread starter):Did these countries have problems with excessive alcohol consume in the past so that they introduced astronomic taxes on beer, wine, and booze?

Have you ever seen Swedes on vacation in the Algarve?

Quoting Bofredrik (Reply 7):Alcohol in Sweden can only be found at SYSTEMBOLAGET:

Doesn't the E.U. have some sort of problem with that? Doesn't it violate some anti-trust laws or something?
By the way, do bars have to buy their alcohol from those stores or can they buy it directly from suppliers?

Quoting Pyrex (Reply 45):Have you ever seen Swedes on vacation in the Algarve?

Have you ever seen Swedes on holiday at charter destinations? The Swedish government tends to forget the Swedes don't learn to control their alcohol consumption with this policy. I've never seen so many drunk people (especially so many drunk 30+ males) after a Saturday night out in Gothenburg after the 25th of any month.

Now we could go on discussing whether or not it's nice with Dutchmen on holiday anywhere, anytime! My answer: that doesn't depend on alcohol consumption, we can be annoying without as well...